Pension Provision, Care and Dignity in Old Age: Legal and Economic Issues

Abstract

The legal, policy and economic issues associated with pension provision, care and dignity in old age are fundamental challenges for the future of our society. Pension provision is in crisis and this paper highlights the policy choices and regulatory challenges that this entails. The analysis also highlights the importance of the ‘nuclear family’ and the ‘extended family’ in the provision of care, from child care to old age care and the consideration that the home is the natural environment in which such provision ought to take place. In this context, an adequate legal and regulatory framework for pensions needs to balance a number of competing interests, given the implications in terms of intergenerational debt of the financing of care and income in old age and the broader social justice considerations that are at stake in the design of schemes that provide adequate care and income in old age in a market economy. The starting point should be the dignity of human beings, which today finds general acceptance via the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this context, we highlight inter alia major issues of generational fairness arising in the UK, linked partly but not solely to pension issues. Possible political consequences are a “battle of generations” in the future.

Keywords: Pensions, pension regulation, demographic change, risk bearing

JEL Classification: G23, H55, J32